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Trade Secrets

Imagine this . . . Yuengling, America’s oldest brewery in the country (and based outside of Philly) is invited to visit Mike’s Hard Lemonade in Seattle. The purpose of the trip is for Mike’s Hard Lemonade to share all of its trade secrets with Yuengling. Yes, all of the recipes, all of the infrastructure, all of the processes. Yeah, right.

Today, Simon’s Fund and several other organizations attended a heart screening hosted by the Nick of Time Foundation (NOTF). The invite was extended so that many organizations could learn how to host heart screenings – organization, recruitment, medical teams, equipment, etc. NOTF laid the blueprint on the table.

What inspires this type of collaboration in the nonprofit space? This would never happen in the for profit space. It is because the goal of these nonprofits is similar – to make heart screenings the standard of care for children in this country. Our metrics are similar too – we want to screen as many kids as possible and use best practices in the process.

We are not competing (although it is hard to fundraise). We are not in it for the money. We are not concerned with market share. Our profits are lives saved and we know that we can accomplish more together.

The Nick of Time Foundation did an amazing thing today. Sure, it checked about 200 hearts at the screening and probably found two students with heart conditions. But more importantly, it gave other organizations a game plan and the confidence to go home and to do heart screenings themselves. That’s where the real impact happens. That’s how we scale. That’s how we check more hearts and save more lives.